The present invention provides a method and apparatus for constructing dentures. More particularly, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for constructing dentures which completely accommodate a patient's mandibular excursions.
The human jaw is capable of a wide variety of movements, and each individual exhibits his or her own unique set of such movements. Consequently, one of the most difficult aspects of general dentistry is providing dentures constructed to accommodate completely the excursions of the patient's jaws. In addition to accurately determining all of the physical parameters of tooth and jaw position, the dentist must at the same time attempt to satisfy the patient's needs for fit, function and esthetics.
To construct a set of dentures which meet all of the above criteria, it is first necessary to model the movements of the patient's jaws. Intra-oral tracing devices are known which utilize moldable material and scribing pins to form three dimensional recordings of the patient's mandibular excursions along the Gothic arch, curve of Wilson and curve of Spee. However, to this point no method has been devised for using the recordings to accurately position denture bases in a conventional dental articulator or to calibrate such an articulator to precisely reproduce the patient's mandibular excursions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,273,533 to Della Croce discloses a method for constructing dentures which utilizes intra-oral recordings of the patient's mandibular movements to calibrate an articulator; however, the articulator is of Della Croce's own design and is not of the type generally known and almost universally employed by those skilled in the art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for constructing dentures which completely accommodate the patient's mandibular excursion.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for constructing such dentures on a conventional dental articulator calibrated to precisely duplicate the patient's mandibular movements.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a conventional dental articulator which is calibrated to precisely duplicate a patient's mandibular excursions.